The Delta IV Heavy (Delta 9250H) is an expendable rocket, the largest type of the Delta IV family. It was first launched in 2004.
It is similar to the Medium+ (5,2), except that it uses two additional CBCs instead of using GEMs. These are strap-on boosters which are separated earlier in the flight than the center CBC. The Delta IV Heavy also features a stretched 5-meter composite payload fairing. An aluminum trisector (3 part) fairing derived from the Titan IV fairing is also available. The first launch in 2004 was a test launch only. Its first payload was the DSP-23 satellite.
Capacity (separated spacecraft mass) of the Delta IV Heavy:
- Low Earth orbit (LEO) 22,950 kg
- geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) 13,130 kg (28,950 lb).
- geosynchronous orbit (GEO) 6,275 kg
- escape orbit 9,306 kg
- C3 performance of 30 km2s−2: 5,228 kg
- C3 performance of 60 km2s−2: 2,521 kg
The Heavy's total mass at launch is approximately 733,000 kg, much less than that of the Space Shuttle (2,040,000 kg), but is not reused.
The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is planned for an unmanned test flight launch, known as EFT-1, aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2014. If launched, it would be its first launch into orbit.
Read more about Delta IV Heavy: Comparable Vehicles
Famous quotes containing the word heavy:
“Tom’s great yellow bronze mask all draped upon an iron framework. An inhibited, nerve-drawn; dropped face—as if hung on a scaffold of heavy private brooding; & thought.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)